Ghulam Nabi Azad noted that the AYUSH systems of medicine are of great antiquity

Published on March 25, 2011 by News Desk · 1 Comment Print This Post

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The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad today chaired the meeting of Consultative Committee of Parliament attached to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in New Delhi to specifically discuss the activities of Department of AYUSH. Cutting across party lines the Consultative Committee members lauded the progress made by the Department of AYUSH in the short span of sixteen years since the inception of separate Department for Indian Systems of Medicines and Homeopathy in 1995.

Sh Ghulam Nabi Azad noted that the AYUSH systems of medicine are of great antiquity and the Department has been making significant strides in providing an enabling environment to develop these systems with its infrastructure of National Institutes, Research Councils, Pharmacopoeial Laboratories, the Public Sector Undertaking of Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited as also the National Medicinal Plants Board. The Minister highlighted that mainstreaming of AYUSH systems has become a successful strategy in the National Rural Health Mission. He also elaborated on the efforts made by the Department towards ensuring quality control of drugs. The Minister however pointed out the acute shortage of doctors in rural areas and elicited views of the Members in mitigating the situation by utilizing the AYUSH doctors to fill the felt need at grass root levels.

The Secretary, Department of AYUSH Shri Anil Kumar drew the attention of the members to the new initiatives taken by the Department in the XIth Plan particularly the scheme on Acquisition Cataloguing, Digitization and Publication of text Book & Manuscripts; projects on Local Health Tradition; scheme on AYUSH clusters and Public health initiatives.

The Consultative Committee members shared the concern of the Department over some key issues like low capacity reflected in vacancies; pending Utilisation Certificates from States; weak drug enforcement machinery; collaborative research and building quality – drugs, therapies, hospitals, laboratories, teaching colleges. The Members requested the Health Minister to ensure employment and utilization of trained manpower and suggested that AYUSH services should be more visible at the grass root level so that benefits of progress made by the Department reach the people.

The Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Sh Dinesh Trivedi attended the meeting along with thirteen other members. The Members of Parliament who attended today’s meeting included S/Sh. Shailendra Kumar(S.P), Sh. Datta R Meghe (INC), Dr C P Thakur (BJP), Sh Sanjay Singh Chauhan (RLD), Sh Moti Lal Vora (INC), Sh Abani Roy (RSP), Sh Oscar Fernandes (INC), Sh. Baishnab Parida (BJD), Dr. R.C.Dome (CPI-M), Dr. M.Jagannath (INC), Sh Sanjay Sinh (INC), Dr. Girija Vyas(INC), and Sh. Inder Singh Namdhari (Independent). Secretaries of all the four departments of the Ministry and other senior officers of the Department of AYUSH were present at the meeting.

AYUSH stream and MBBS course

Maharashtra to include Ayurveda as part of MBBS syllabus

Our Bureau, Mumbai Saturday, April 23, 2011, 08:00 Hrs [IST]

The Maharashtra University of Health Science (MUHS) will soon constitute an expert committee to discuss the new syllabus for the MBBS students for the coming academic year as it has been decided to include basic Ayurveda as part of MBBS syllabus in the medical colleges in the state. A decision to include Ayurveda in MBBS syllabus was taken following recommendations from the Ayush department. There are 34 private and government medical colleges in the state. Their syllabus comes under the purview of the MUHS. According to the Ayush recommendations, every medical college should reserve at least 20 hours to teach ayurvedic science in MBBS classes. Dr Arun Jamkar, vice chancellor, MUHS said “As per the suggestions made by Dept of Ayush we are meeting up to form a committee to implement these directives and to discuss the new syllabus for the medical students for the coming year.” He further informed that Maharashtra will be the first state for implementing such directives. Dr Arun Jamkar, vice chancellor, MUHS said “We are meeting soon to form a committee to implement these directives and to discuss the new syllabus for the medical students for the coming year.” Dr Vijay Magar, associate professor at the RA Podar Ayurvedic College and Hospital, Mumbai said “Ayurveda is an ancient medicine and the students are more interested in learning modern medicine. For this it is a nice move as modern medicine doctors should be familiar with ancient medicine and its treatment methodology. Every person should know about Ayurveda. Instead of devoting so much time for a course, we can have atleast one lecture every week. Like for conducting research in herbal products there are separate institutes.” Dr Jamkar informed that as most of the universities across the world has been teaching the ancient medicine of their respective cultures. For instance, modern medicine doctors in China get lessons in Chinese medicine. “Finally we too are introducing the study of our ancient medicine. We are proud that ours will be the first state in the country to implement the Ayush directives”, he added. MUHS ensures in proper and systematic instruction, teaching, training and research in modern medicine and Indian systems of medicine in the state of Maharashtra, and to have balanced growth in the medical sciences. They are taking initiative to implement this decision to attract more MBBS students to take up Ayurveda as the major subject to practice and to research on the same.